Northern Ontario researcher says parents play a key role in helping kids with mental health issues

A children's mental health researcher from Northern Ontario is telling parents and professionals that treating kids works best when it includes parents too.

“Sometimes well-intentioned therapists will work with the child individually and what we know about brain science is that if we can help parents help their child, that will go way further in terms of recovery and health and wellness,” said Adele Lafrance Robinson.

Lafrance Robinson wrapped up three days of workshops in the Sault on Wednesday. The talks were hosted by the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board as part of its mental health strategic plan.

The Sudbury-based clinical psychologist and researcher is an associate professor at Laurentian University and works at Health Sciences North.

For the last five years she and a Toronto-based colleague, Joanne Dolhanty, have been expounding on the benefits of what they call emotion-focused family therapy, which is based on the belief that difficulties with emotion are what underlie mental health issues.

“It's a quite different model of treatment in that it's really emotion-based and very family focused,” said Lafrance Robinson.

The new therapy, which Lafrance Robinson and Dolhanty presented to staff at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in the U.K. last year, trains parents so they have the tools to be their child's recovery coach. Essentially, parents are being trained as “beginner therapists,” said Lafrance Robinson.

“I've never met a parent who purposefully did bad things,” said Lafrance Robinson. “But sometimes with good intentions we can do things that have a negative impact on a child's development.”

She said the therapy also aims to help parents process their own fear and shame.

For instance, parents whose children suffer from anxiety or severe depression are often terrified to intervene in case it pushes the child into thoughts of suicide or worse – a suicide attempt. Other parents wrongly believe they may have caused their child's mental health issue.

“Parents are shackled because they don't want to say or do the wrong thing,” said Lafrance Robinson. “Those parents are not bad parents, because that's coming from a place of love and protection.”

Emotion-focused family therapy came from a need to address children with eating disorders, which are not only the most life-threatening mental illnesses, but also extremely difficult to treat, said Lafrance Robinson.

“This model was developed out of necessity, and it's working,” she said.

For educators, the model offers a way to understand parents who can present as critical toward school staff or uncaring when they are in fact afraid or ashamed.

“A parent who is criticizing a teacher or clinician for their credentials is really saying 'I'm terrified and I want the best for my kid and I want you to be it, and can I get some reassurance around that?'” said Lafrance Robinson.

“What we want to do is help clinicians and educators see deeper than what is presented in order to be able to help parents help their kids,” she said.